Liquidity spillovers in sovereign bond and CDS markets: an analysis of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis

At the end of 2009, countries in the Eurozone (euro area) began to experience a sudden divergence of bond yields as the market perception of sovereign default risk increased. The theory of complete markets suggests that sovereign debt and credit default swap (CDS) credit spreads should track each other closely. In addition, liquidity risk should be priced into both instruments in such a way that buying exposure to the same default risk is identically priced. We use a time-varying vector autoregression framework to establish the credit and liquidity spread interactions over the 2009-2010 crisis period. We find substantial variation in the patterns of the transmission effect between maturities and across countries. Our major result is that, for several countries, including Greece, Ireland and Portugal the liquidity of the sovereign CDS market has a substantial time varying influence on sovereign bond credit spreads. This evidence is of particular importance in the current policy context. © 2011 Elsevier B.V

Sex Trafficking Awareness Among Adolescents

Sex Trafficking is a growing concern for the United States of America. This research investigation identifies the level of awareness from a group of individuals about 14 to 18 years old, allowing for the improvement of prevention methods for younger populations. The data for this study reported an overall trend in which students had an insufficient understanding for sex trafficking and its occurrences. Student responses contained higher mean scores as the grade levels increased. The data supports the argument that students are not as aware as they may need to be; however, 10th grade students responded either “slightly agree” or “strongly agree” more frequently than the 9th, 11th, and 12th grade students, leading them to have higher averages. This group of students in particular deviated from the trend established by the other grade level; on average, 10th grade students had higher mean scores than the other grade levels. Survey results summarize a lack of awareness that may originate from ineffective, or nonexistent, awareness programs from the students’ middle schools. Individuals should be informed prior to their entrance into high school. The data followed a distribution in which students were becoming progressively more aware through each school year. During the developmental period between the ages of 11 and 15, individuals often seek closer relationships with perceived friends. Sex traffickers often take the form of a close friend, allowing for an an uninformed individual to put their trust in an potential trafficker

A tile-based method for geodesic buffer generation in a virtual globe

<p>Geometric buffers are important for spatial analysis in many applications of geographic information systems (GISs), such as environmental measurement and management, human health, urban planning, etc. Geometric buffer generation algorithms are well studied in the Euclidean space where the buffer distance is measured by Euclidean metrics; however, very few algorithms are available for generating geometric buffers on the terrain surface in a virtual globe where the buffer distance is measured by geodesic metrics. This paper proposes a tile-based method for geodesic buffer generation according to the characteristics of a virtual globe. It extends the vector tile model (VTM) to organize terrain and vector data, and the XYH algorithm is improved to build geodesic distance fields for terrain meshes. Based on the data organization and the improved XYH algorithm, a geodesic buffer is generated via three main steps: selecting and assembling tiles, updating geodesic distance fields and tracing the boundaries of buffer zones. This method is implemented with multi-scale terrain and vector data, and the experimental results show that it is valid and exact and can be applied in practical applications.</p

Pre-treatment [¹⁸F]FDG PET/CT for assessing bone marrow involvement and prognosis in patients with newly diagnosed peripheral T-cell lymphoma

To explore the value of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in assessing bone marrow involvement (BMI) and prognosis in newly diagnosed peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) before treatment. This retrospective study included 201 eligible PTCLs who received pre-bone marrow biopsy (BMB) and PET/CT. The status of bone marrow (BM) by PET was assessed using a visual examination and a quantitative index (the maximal standardized uptake value [SUVmax] of BM divided by the SUVmax of the liver [M/L]). Totally 148 patients had no evidence of BMI by PET or BMB; BMI was detected by both methods in 16 patients. The sensitivity and specificity of PET/CT for patients with confirmed BMI by BMB were 43.2% and 90.2%, respectively (κ =  0.353). In addition, 25 patients assessed by PET/CT staging (having stage I to II disease) had no evidence of BMI detected by both PET/CT and BMB. Image-guided biopsy was also recommended when PET/CT showed a focal FDG uptake outside the iliac crest. Survival analysis revealed that BMB was significant for overall survival (OS) (P = 0.020) while M/L for both progression free survival (P = 0.002) and OS (P P = 0.027) was an independent prognostic factor for OS. There were no statistical differences at the genetic level about BMI confirmed by PET or BMB. PET/CT has a complementary role in assessing BMI and an ability to predict prognosis in PTCL patients.</p

Density and Viscosity Data for Mixtures of Ionic Liquids with a Common Anion

The density and viscosity of binary ionic liquid mixtures with a common anion, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate + 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate + 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, and 1-propyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate + 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate were determined in the temperature range of (298.15 to 343.15) K. The excess molar volumes were calculated and correlated by Redlich–Kister polynomial expansions. The viscosities for pure ionic liquids were analyzed by means of the Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher equation, and ideal mixing rules were applied for the mixtures

Quantitative Determination of Trisiloxane Surfactants in Beehive Environments Based on Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry

Organosilicone surfactants are increasingly being applied to agricultural agro-ecosystems as spray adjuvants, and were recently shown to impact the learning ability of honey bees. Here we developed a method for analyzing three trisiloxane surfactants (single polyethoxylate (EO) chain and end-capped with methyl, acetyl, or hydroxyl groups; TSS-CH₃, TSS-COCH₃, or TSS-H) in beehive matrices based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC–MS) and the QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) approach from less than 2 g of honey, pollen, or beeswax. Recoveries for each oligomer (2–13 EO) were between 66 and 112% in all matrices. Average method detection limits (MDL) were 0.53, 0.60, 0.56 ng/g in honey, 0.63, 0.81, 0.78 ng/g in pollen, and 0.51, 0.69, 0.63 ng/g in beeswax. Five honey, 10 pollen, and 10 beeswax samples were analyzed. Trisiloxane surfactants were detected in every beeswax and 60% of the pollen samples. Total trisiloxane surfactant concentrations were up to 390 and 39 ng/g in wax and pollen. The described method is proved suitable for analyzing trisiloxane surfactants in beehive samples. The presence of trisiloxane surfactants in North American beehives calls for renewed effort to investigate the consequence of these adjuvants to bee health and the ongoing global bee decline

MOESM2 of Systematic engineering of pentose phosphate pathway improves Escherichia coli succinate production

Additional file 2. Sequences of regulatory elements in engineering of PPP

Structures of high-density and low-density water

Accelerating urbanization has been viewed as an important instrument for economic development and reducing regional income disparity in some developing countries, including China. Recent studies (Bloom et al. 2008) indicate that demographic urbanization level has no causal effect on economic growth. However, due to the varying and changing definition of urban population, the use of demographic indicators as a sole representing indicator for urbanization might be misleading. Here, we re-examine the causal relationship between urbanization and economic growth in Chinese cities and provinces in recent decades, using built-up areas as a landscape urbanization indicator. Our analysis shows that (1) larger cities, both in terms of population size and built-up area, and richer cities tend to gain more income, have larger built-up area expansion, and attract more population, than poorer cities or smaller cities; and (2) that there is a long-term bidirectional causality between urban built-up area expansion and GDP per capita at both city and provincial level, and a short-term bidirectional causality at provincial level, revealing a positive feedback between landscape urbanization and urban and regional economic growth in China. Our results suggest that urbanization, if measured by a landscape indicator, does have causal effect on economic growth in China, both within the city and with spillover effect to the region, and that urban land expansion is not only the consequences of economic growth in cities, but also drivers of such growth. The results also suggest that under its current economic growth model, it might be difficult for China to control urban expansion without sacrificing economic growth, and China’s policy to stop the loss of agricultural land, for food security, might be challenged by its policy to promote economic growth through urbanization

Characterization of hMSCs by flow cytometric analysis.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Isolated hMSCs were positive for surface markers CD146, CD29, CD147 and CD44, and negative for CD45 and CD34. (<b>B</b>) The individual percentages of each surface marker expressed in these cells from the quantitative FACS analysis. Data represent the mean ± SD (n = 3).</p

Asymmetrical Polymer Vesicles with a “Stealthy” Outer Corona and an Endosomal-Escape-Accelerating Inner Corona for Efficient Intracellular Anticancer Drug Delivery

The efficient intracellular drug delivery is an important challenge due to the slow endocytosis and inefficient drug release of traditional delivery vehicles such as symmetrical polymer vesicles, which have the same coronas on both sides of the membrane. Presented in this paper is a noncytotoxic poly­(ethylene oxide)-<i>block</i>-poly­(caprolactone)-<i>block</i>-poly­(acrylic acid) (PEO₁₁₃-<i>b</i>-PCL₁₃₂-<i>b</i>-PAA₁₅) triblock copolymer vesicle with an asymmetrical structure. The biocompatible exterior PEO coronas are designed for stealthy drug delivery; The pH-responsive interior PAA chains are designed for rapid endosomal escape and enhanced drug loading efficiency. The hydrophobic PCL vesicle membrane is for biodegradation. Such asymmetrical polymer vesicle showed high doxorubicin (DOX) loading efficiency and good biodegradability under extracellular enzymatic conditions. Compared with three traditional symmetrical vesicles prepared from PEO₁₁₃-<i>b</i>-PCL₁₁₀, PEO₄₃-<i>b</i>-PCL₉₈-<i>b</i>-PAA₂₅, and PAA₂₁-<i>b</i>-PCL₇₅ copolymers, the DOX-loaded asymmetrical PEO₁₁₃-<i>b</i>-PCL₁₃₂-<i>b</i>-PAA₁₅ polymer vesicles exhibited rapid endocytosis rate and much faster endosomal escape ability, demonstrating promising potential applications in nanomedicine